Agents attached to the San Juan Criminal Investigation Corps (CIC) occupied yesterday, a 2019 blue BMW SUV , from the director of the Tourism Office of the municipality of Barceloneta, Carlos Julián Maldonado , in relation to the investigation of the accident in which a woman perished while changing the tire of her car on Calaf street, at the exit towards the José De Diego expressway (PR-22) in Hato Rey, Puerto Rico.
The director of the San Juan CIC, Captain Luis E. Díaz, indicated that the owner of the vehicle, who was accompanied by a lawyer, relied on his constitutional right not to make statements about the events.
The vehicle will be analyzed by experts from the Institute of Forensic Sciences (ICF) as part of the investigation.
Through the development of the investigation, the agents arrived yesterday at the residence of the driver located in the Magueyes neighborhood, in Barceloneta, Puerto Rico, where he lives with his mother and after waiting about two hours he communicated with them to indicate that he preferred that they go to the municipal police headquarters of that town, where he arrived driving the SUV.
“He relied on his constitutional right to be assisted by a lawyer and not to speak,” Diaz stressed.
Previously, he had gone to that municipal police headquarters to file a complaint in which he alleged that someone had hit his SUV, which is missing a rear-view mirror and has other damage to the bodywork and a light bulb.
The investigation will continue its course through the analysis of additional evidence such as security camera analysis and interviews with potential witnesses. At this preliminary investigative stage, the driver has not been arrested.
According to the investigation, Natalia Nicole Ayala Rivera, 20, left her job in a store in the Plaza Las Américas shopping center in Hato Rey and spent a while sharing with friends in a nearby business, when she went home to at around 11:20 pm, Tuesday, before going up to the highway, she noticed that her right front tire was deflated.
The driver, who was a member of the San Juan Sports School Taekwondo team, called her father to ask for help, but at that moment a friend, identified as Carlos Sosa Biggio, passed by and stopped his SUV in front of her car. They were parked on the left side of the road where the shoulder is wider and they were changing the tire. At that moment a dark colored SUV struck them and fled the scene.
Sosa Biggio called the 9-1-1 Emergency System for help, but chose to put her on his Nissan Pathfinder SUV to take her to the Medical Center in Río Piedras.
Ayala Rivera was pronounced dead at 4:47 a.m. by Dr. Beatriz Figueroa Díaz.
The young man who assisted her received injuries to his left hip and right leg. His condition is stable.
In the scene, a rear-view mirror was recovered as evidence that would be compared with the occupied BMW SUV to establish if the part corresponds to it.
Last night, the mayor of Barceloneta, Wanda Soler, announced the suspension of his duties as a municipal employee for being in the middle of an investigation by the state police.
“In accordance with the applicable laws and regulations in our municipal administration, we inform that Mr. Maldonado is immediately suspended from all his work as long as what happened is elucidated, as well as an administrative investigation is initiated,” said the mayor, in statements written.
She, in turn, clarified that the investigation is not linked to the functions that Maldonado performs in the municipality and she extended her condolences to the family of the deceased.
